History Main / LostHimInACardGame

* Happens to several people in a ''really'' high-stakes poker game among supernatural beings, in a fictional interlude of the ''TabletopGame/{{Underworld}}'' RPG rulebook. Souls, sanity, intellects and destinies were all laid on the table once the betting got hot.

* ''Creator/GearboxSoftware'' CEO Randy Pitchford once claimed that he won the name of the company in a card game with ''Creator/ValveCorporation'' founder Gabe Newell, [[https://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-gearbox-poker-game-was-tall-tale-5339861 only to take it back]] when representatives from Valve refuted the claim.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': Grim bets himself and loses in a game of limbo [[WhatAnIdiot (to gain the soul of a hamster, of all things)]], however, it ''did'' set the series in motion, so it's not a total loss.

* In ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' [[AccidentalMarriage Matt Horner ''won'' Mira Han in a poker game]].

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* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': In chapter 8 Shinji loses a Strip Chess match against Pen Pen and becomes his "butler" for a month (long -and hilarious- story). Asuka wanted to win Shinji back, so she and the penguin played another Strip Chess match. If she won, she would have Shinji back and he would be her cabaña boy for one week; if Pen Pen won, Shinji would be his butler for one month AND she would do all Shinji's chores. Pen Pen lost the match and Shinji.

** In ''[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Episode V]]'', it is revealed that Lando lost the Millennium Falcon to Han in a card game called sabacc. The way they talk about that ship, [[CargoShip it could be considered a person.]][[spoiler:As it turns out, the Falcon's computer contains the uploaded memory core of Lando's droid L3-37 ([[{{Robosexual}}for whom he may have had feelings for]]) after she was destroyed on Kessel]]

** Apparently, you can wager ''anything'' in sabacc, literally. Han actually won an entire planet in one such game, the one he took Leia to after abducting her in ''The Courtship of Princess Leia''. On another note, Anakin and his mother were originally owned by a Hutt named Gardulla who won them by ''cheating'' in this game (and Gardulla tended to cheat at sabacc ''a lot''). Watto won them from her by betting on another pod race, and he was known to cheat too; the dice cube he used in that previous example was ''loaded'', according to some sources. (Still, [[EvenEvilHasStandards at least he wasn't as cruel as the Hutts tended to be.]])

* ''Creator/GearboxSoftware'' CEO Randy Pitchford once claimed that he won the name of the company in a card game with ''Creator/ValveCorporation'' CEO Gabe Newell, [[https://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-gearbox-poker-game-was-tall-tale-5339861 only to take it back]] when representatives from Valve refuted the claim.

* In the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Star Wars]]'' book series, Han wins a planet in a card game that turns out to be inhabited. By a WitchSpecies, to boot. And of course, it's been long established that the transfer of everyone's favourite CoolShip from Lando to Han occurred in the same way.

Most often the card game is [[TabletopGame/{{Poker}} poker]], but theoretically any form of game that allows TheBet would work. A comedic form of the AbsurdlyHighStakesGame. Compare the BachelorAuction, which is consensual on the "traded" person's part.

* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/DofusTheTreasuresOfKerubim'' when Kerubim visits Ecaflip City. He initially wants to earn enough money to woo his beloved Lou, but an unbelievable string of good fortune allows him to climb the hierarchy of the city and earn the right to face off against the city's undefeated champion, the Baron. Despite already having more money than he could ever need hundreds of times over, Kerubim's arrogance, amazing hand, and faith in his seemingly-unshakeable luck allows the Baron to goad Kerubim into betting the ring he was going to propose with, symbolizing Lou's love. [[spoiler: The Baron had the one hand that could beat Kerubim's, and not only does Kerubim lose his amassed fortune, but Lou forgets who he is entirely. The plot arc ends with Kerubim being offered an extremely safe (but not 100% sure) bet against the Baron that would allow him to regain everything if he won. He refuses the temptation, acknowledging that "love is not a game," and sets off to win back Lou's affections the proper way.]]

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* The Robert Asprin novel ''Little Myth Marker'', part of his ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series. The title is a reference to ''Little Miss Marker''. [[spoiler: Subverted in that is later revealed that this was done deliberately on the orders of the "kid" bet so as to infiltrate the hero's household.]] Likewise, the fan version, [[TabletopGames/HoylesRulesOfDragonPoker Hoyle's Rules of Dragon Poker]], allows this.

* [[WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss Blitzo and Verosika]] wager [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lincoln Loud]] when they make TheBet in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13836567/7/Hell-s-Loud Hell's Loud]]''. The [=IMP=] crew are given even further incentive to win because Verosika doesn't even bother to hide the fact that she's gonna abuse her authority over Lincoln to do... ''things''... to him should she win.

* [[Web/Animation/HelluvaBoss Blitzo and Verosika]] wager [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lincoln Loud]] when they make TheBet in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13836567/7/Hell-s-Loud Hell's Loud]]''. Verosika doesn't even bother to hide the fact that she and her succubi underlings will seduce him into staying with her permanently should she win.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', Mr. Krabs loses [=SpongeBob=]'s work contract in [[GoKartingWithBowser a poker match with Plankton]]. Plankton tries forcing [=SpongeBob=] to make a Krabby Patty, but only becomes frustrated when he refuses. When Plankton finally gives up and gives [=SpongeBob=] back to Mr. Krabs, he admits he cheated.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1594738849069895500
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[[quoteright:260:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calling.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:260:Never ask the [[ChaoticEvil Church of]] [[TheTrickster Loki]] to babysit.]]

* This happens to the protagonist in "The Tiger's Bride", one of the retellings of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' in Creator/AngelaCarter's ''Literature/TheBloodyChamber''. Her father loses her to the "beast" (she notes that it's not that he cared more about gambling than his daughter, just equally much). And then [[spoiler: he turns out to be a tiger in human's clothes and she turns into one too and willingly stays with him while sending back to her father a clockwork version of herself because clearly that's all he wants.]] This must be symbolic of ''something''...

* In ''Literature/IronCouncil'', Judah had to go on the run after his employer lost him in a card game. His flight was justified, as his boss hadn't actually ''owned'' Judah in the first place.
* [[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_10/Hymn_34 Mandala 10, Hymn 34]] (dated to 1,100 B.C. or older) of the ''Rig-Veda'' is the lament of a [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] who has lost not only all his property, but also his wife in games of dice.
* In ''Troubled Range'' by Creator/JTEdson, a friend of Mark Counter's accidentally wins a wife in a poker game. The friend thought the ship's captain he was playing against had been betting his ship when he tossed in the marker with the name written on it.
* In the ''Literature/SecretHistories'' novel ''Casino Infernale'', the eponymous casino holds a high stakes poker game for the express purpose of wagering misappropriated souls. The protagonists infiltrate the game in order to rescue the souls and destroy the casino.
* In Ruthanne Lum [=McCunn=]'s ''Thousand Pieces of Gold'' novel and [[FilmOfTheBook the film based on it]], American pioneer and experienced gambler Charles Bemis engages in a card game to the Chinese Hong King for the stated purpose of winning the Chinese's maid Polly. (While based on a true story, it appears the way RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Bemis Polly]] got her freedom was different.)
* Nikolai Gogol's novel ''Dead Souls'' takes place in Imperial Russia during the first half of the XIX century, when it had especially hard laws on serfdom making it essentially slavery. The protagonist, Chichikov, runs a scam that involves buying serfs that are already dead but aren't yet legally registered as dead. At one point he meets a landowner named Nozdryov, who is a compulsive gambler, and they play a checkers game in which the bet is serfs.
* In the {{Literature/Xanth}} series book ''Demons Don't Dream'', Dug makes a bet with his best friend Edsel that Ed won't be able to find a game to interest Dug, with the stakes being Ed's motorcycle and Dug's girlfriend Pia. When Dug tells Pia about the bet, she is fine with it, and when Dug ends up losing, he isn't upset at all, since at the end of completing the Companions of Xanth computer game, he had fallen for Kim, the other person playing it.
* In the first ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' novel, Jon-Tom and Mudge are hiding out at the local ThievesGuild hideout waiting for the heat to die down after a crime they got involved in when Jon-Tom tries his hand playing cards with some of the locals. He ends up doing quite well and winning a bit of money when another gambler puts up his girlfriend, a vixen, as his stake in a hand since he's broke. Jon-Tom wins again, but he's {{Squick}}ed out by the thought of having sex with someone from a different species and ends up accidentally insulting her. The resulting fight forces Jon-Tom and Mudge to [[EveryoneChasingYou flee the guild]].

* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' does this with a man bargaining his daughter off for marriage.
* In ''[[Music/SClub7 S-Club 7 in Miami]]'', their boss at the hotel where they work loses them in a poker game to a rival hotel owner.
* In an episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', Salem bet and lost the Spellmans in a game of poker.
* In an episode of ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'', a man won a compulsive gambler's wife, and didn't see anything wrong with making sure he collected.
* In season 3 of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', Mike and Ian bet Susan in a poker game when they're both vying for her heart.
* Borderline example in ''Series/KnightRider'': Michael deliberately lost KITT in a game with the episode's bad guy, as part of a plan to take him down. Unfortunately he didn't bother to ''explain it to KITT'' beforehand.
* In the ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode, "The Moose", a new sergeant arrives at the 4077th with his "moose" (a Korean girl servant) named Young-Hi. Hawkeye rigs a poker game against the sergeant and wins Young-Hi. Hilarity ensues when Hawkeye tries to let Young-Hi go.
* An episode of ''Sseries/{{The Odd Couple|1970}}'' has Oscar lose Felix to guest star Bobby Riggs as a glorified butler. Oscar offers to try to win his freedom back but Felix wins it back himself by holding a note longer than Riggs.

* In ''Series/TheBeiderbeckeAffair'', Jill Swinburne loses her boyfriend, Trevor Chaplain, to his former fiancee, Helen of Tadcaster, in a coin-toss after a night of heavy drinking. Mrs Swinburne honours her agreement with Helen, but Mr Chaplain goes back to her anyway because "nobody wins me at the toss of a coin." It is strongly suggested that this is a new development in Trevor's persona since the time when he and Helen were engaged.
* A ''Series/{{Simon}}'' episode featured Duke Stone at a poker table betting his butler because he was ''two'' dollars short of the money needed to match the last bet and his nephew wouldn't allow him to pay later. Simon won that round. In the end, Duke offered his gardener in exchange to get his butler back.

* In an episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'', the Skipper and Mr. Howell bet on their turtles racing, eventually with Mr. Howell "winning" Gilligan from the Skipper. After losing more times, the Skipper has nothing left to bet, but Mr. Howell finally has him choose which hand has a pebble. When the Skipper chooses wrongly again, Mr. Howell delivers Gilligan back to him. When the Skipper protests that he lost, Mr. Howell cites all the damage Gilligan did while working for him and says whoever ''has'' Gilligan is the loser.
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Entangled", Lister loses [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Rimmer]] while playing poker with [=GELFs=].
-->'''Cat:''' We're all deeply sorry, bud. Except for me and him and him.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon'': Poe has a habit of playing (and losing) online poker with other AI. When a virtual brothel's persona hears that he's hosting the digitized personality of a deceased sex worker he suggests putting her in the pot. [[spoiler: However, Kovacs needed to infect a brothel with a horrific virus as part of his plans, so Poe sent him the virus instead.]]
* J. J. Killian from ''Series/MidnightCaller'' won his second wife by gambling, and lost her the same way.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* In ''Series/TreintaYUnMinutos'', a comedy show about a news program run by puppets, it's commented that a member of the crew Bodoque, who has a gambling problem, bet his own aunt. [[RuleOfFunny Hilariously, Bodoque defends himself saying that he won the game, so now he has two aunts.]]
[[/folder]]

* Happens to several people in a ''really'' high-stakes poker game among supernatural beings, in a fictional interlude of the ''Underworld'' RPG rulebook. Souls, sanity, intellects and destinies were all laid on the table once the betting got hot.
* A supernatural poker game also occurs in the ''To Go'' module for ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies''. One match is "jailhouse eightball", where the players bet things they want to get ''rid'' of. One player bets the cancer her son is suffering from, another bets one of his enemies.

* ''VideoGame/GrandiaIII'' has LovableRogue Alonso trying to win his ship back from the (female) casino owner who won it earlier in a rigged game. When he runs out of material possessions to bet, he bets himself: if he loses, he'll marry the owner (who has been after him for years, but is quite ugly in both face and personality).

* [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Robert House]] won control over the gambling-obsessed Vault 21 in a game of blackjack.

* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', Riff at one point mentions that his assistant (when he ran a company for anti-monster equipment) lost her family to vampires. He then specifies that she lost them in a poker game.
* In ''[[Webcomic/{{SSDD}} S.S.D.D.]]'' Tessa apparently won her robot boyfriend Sticks in a card game, granted he was a just sex robot and wasn't fully self-aware until Tessa modified him (to make him more interesting for resale).
* ''Webcomic/Collar6'': Sixx bet herself ([[spoiler: She wins]]).

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Prince said he'd give the indebted Yeon to the person who'd win the World's Strongest Shinsu Competition. He really didn't count on losing against Bam, but when he does, he gives Yeon up, albeit under great protest.

* In Creator/TomSka's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXLILNrZ3NQ 17 ways to dump your Girlfriend]]'', one method of breaking up is to lose your girlfriend in a game of Poker.

* PlayedForDrama in ''WesternAnimation/DofusTheTreasuresOfKerubim'' when Kerubim visits Ecaflip City. He initially wants to earn enough money to woo his beloved Lou, but an unbelievable string of good fortune allows him to climb the hierarchy of the city and earn the right to face off against the city's undefeated champion, the Baron. Despite already having more money than he could ever need hundreds of times over, Kerubim's arrogance, amazing hand, and faith in his seemingly-unshakeable luck allows the Baron to goad Kerubim into betting the ring he was going to propose with, symbolizing Lou's love. [[spoiler: The Baron had the one hand that could beat Kerubim's, and not only does Kerubim lose his amassed fortune, but Lou forgets who he is entirely. The plot arc ends with Kerubim being offered an extremely safe (but not 100% sure) bet against the Baron that would allow him to regain everything if he won. He refuses the temptation, acknowledging that "love is not a game," and sets off to win back Lou's affections the proper way.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': In episode 11, Hilda gets lost in the woods. She runs into her old acquaintance the Woodman, who is playing poker with some elves and, as we eventually learn, a forest giant. He bets Hilda without her knowing, and loses her to the giant, who takes her back to his lair. However, he did so on purpose since he hoped Hilda would thus be able to help him get back some other items he lost to the giant.

* A ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse with Josè Carioca as the protagonist had him bet his girlfriend Rosita at a billiards match. Rosita, offended it's not a "real" duel, gets back at him and his rival by pretending to dump him for another guy, and when the fake boyfriend gets challenged he uses his right as the challenged to make it a swordfight-and he's a fencing champion.

* In Creator/{{Vathara}}'s ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]],'' [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Megumi Takani]] is passed off as a girlfriend belonging to a very unfortunate gambler who had no money with which to settle his debts. Kaoru was not pleased.
* [[TabletopGame/HoylesRulesOfDragonPoker Hoyle's Rules of Dragon Poker]] allows you to bet anything, including people, but the winner has to return them before the police get involved.

* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/97288 Lucky]]'' is a literal interpretation of [[spoiler:Mouse]]'s canonical statement that he 'won' [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]]. Specifically, he got Harry's guardian angel drunk and played poker with him.

* The whole point of the Creator/ShirleyTemple film ''Film/LittleMissMarker'' (based on a Creator/DamonRunyon story), in which Shirley's father leaves her as collateral when placing a bet on a horse, loses the bet, and thus loses Shirley--and commits suicide immediately thereafter.
* In ''Film/SwingTime'', the contract for a band changes hands several times in this way.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Anakin and his mother Shmi were slaves whose prior owner, Gardulla the Hutt, lost them betting on podraces to Watto, and Anakin wins his freedom after another podrace. And whether it was Anakin or his mother was decided by a [[CallARabbitASmeerp chance cube]] throw. The Jedi didn't exactly leave it to chance, though...
** In ''[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Episode V]]'', it is revealed that Lando lost the Millennium Falcon to Han in a card game called sabacc. The way they talk about that ship, [[CargoShip it could be considered a person.]][[spoiler:As it turns out, the Falcon's computer contains the uploaded memory core of Lando's droid L3-37 ([[{{Robosexual}}for whom he may have had feelings for]]) after she was destroyed on Kessel]]
*** In ''Film/{{Solo}}'', we see exactly how Han wins the ship from Lando. Han needed the Millennium Falcon for a job, so he played a few rounds of Sabacc with Lando, constantly upping the stakes until he bets the Falcon. [[spoiler:However, Han loses because Lando was cheating, but Lando agrees to work with them anyways. After the job was finished, they had a rematch, but Han steals the cards up Lando's sleeve first. This time,]] Han wins the ship fair and square.
** Apparently, you can wager ''anything'' in sabacc, literally. Han actually won an entire planet in one such game, the one he took Leia to after abducting her in ''The Courtship of Princess Leia''. On another note, Anakin and his mother were originally owned by a Hutt named Gardulla who won them by ''cheating'' in this game (and Gardulla tended to cheat at sabacc ''a lot''). Watto won them from her by betting on another pod race, and he was known to cheat too; the dice cube he used in that previous example was ''loaded'', according to some sources. (Still, [[EvenEvilHasStandards at least he wasn't as cruel as the Hutts tended to be.]])
* In the Creator/RichardPryor/Jackie Gleason movie ''Film/TheToy'', one of the sordid stories about U.S. Bates (Gleason) was that he won his servant Barkley in a game of pool.
* In ''Film/AlmostFamous'', one of the bands bets their groupies.
* In ''Film/AmazingGrace'', William Wilberforce pulls out of a card game when his opponent bets a slave, something the opponent did for the express purpose of testing Wilberforce's abolitionist convictions. Needless to say, a serious example.
%%* ''Honeymoon in Vegas''
* Starts off the plot of ''Film/RugglesOfRedGap'', as Ruggles the British valet is gambled and lost to a pair of loudmouth American tourists.

* An unfortunate man lost his wife to the brewer in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}.''
* Used as a punchline in ''Creator/AbbottAndCostello meet the Mummy:''
-->'''Bud:''' No, no; his mummy is a he.\\
'''Lou:''' Strange country! Your mommy, your mommy was a lady, wasn't she?\\
'''Bud:''' I never had a mummy!\\
'''Lou:''' So what'd your father do; win you in a crap game?

* In an early draft of ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', this was how Calvin Candie acquired Broomhilda.

* ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'': When the Lady wakes up in the Kid's shop with no memory of how she got there, the Kid claims he won her in a game of poker. As the last thing she remembers of him puking and passing out behind the saloon, she is pretty sure he is lying.
* In ''Film/SkyBandits'', the girls put themselves forward as the stake in TheBet between Barney and Luke and Aldiss and Nicky.
* Variations are seen in ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift'':
** The opening race, pitting Sean against a jealous high school jock, sees the jock's girlfriend offer herself as the prize for the winner. Played with, as when Sean appears as though he's about to win - and the girl teases the jock about it - the jock purposefully wrecks both cars, and it's implied neither driver gets the girl.
** The climactic race also has shades of this, as the LoserLeavesTown stakes imply that Neela will remain with the winner.

* Creator/{{Saki}} did this, also with a cook.

* ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', where Gerald O'Hara wins Pork (his slave valet) in a TabletopGame/{{poker}} game.

* ''Literature/LastCall'' by Creator/TimPowers is about a poker player who ''thought'' he won a huge pot in a game years ago... only to discover that he traded away his body and soul to the guy organizing the game. And now he's got to win it back before the guy comes to collect...
* In ''Literature/{{Declare}}'' by the same author, the protagonist and the traitor Kim Philby gamble for the LoveInterest versus a scroll detailing the secret of eternal life. The game is interrupted, but Philby insists on completing the game when they meet up again in Moscow.

* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In the ''Hawk & Fisher'' spinoff series' book 1, Hawk claims to have lost his missing eye in a card game. He was just kidding though.
* In ''Chess with a Dragon'', some insectoid aliens are shown engaged in some sort of gambling game. The biggest loser of the evening is said to be dangerously close to "gracing the table", i.e. becoming dinner for the winners.
* In ''Literature/TheGoodSoldierSvejk'', Svejk becomes batman of army chaplain Otto Katz, but Katz loses him at cards to Lieutenant Lukáš. Played both for comedy and drama. Betting people as property is a new low for Katz, putting him on par with slave traders. But not for Lukáš, his batman deserved that.
* In the short story "Hazard" by Creator/GeorgetteHeyer, a man bets his half-sister in a game of hazard. She's so angry that she leaves willingly enough (with the hero, who she's in love with) and punishes the hero for playing the game by threatening to cause a scandal and make him marry her (as he's engaged to someone else).
* One of the characters in Jeannette Winterson's ''The Passion'' bets his own life in a card game [[spoiler:and loses. But he says it was worth it.]]
* In the course of a long night of dice, Athos of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' stakes horses, a diamond that does not belong to him, and his servant Grimaud. After several losses, he retrieves the diamond, Grimaud, and the horse's harness— but not the horse.
* This happens to the protagonist in "The Tiger's Bride", one of the retellings of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' in Creator/AngelaCarter's ''Literature/TheBloodyChamber''. Her father loses her to the "beast" (she notes that it's not that he cared more about gambling than his daughter, just equally much). And then [[spoiler: he turns out to be a tiger in human's clothes and she turns into one too and willingly stays with him while sending back to her father a clockwork version of herself because clearly that's all he wants.]] This must be symbolic of ''something''...
* Bryony House in Jacqueline Carey's ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'' books is the only one whose adepts will gamble for their favours. It is said they very rarely lose. Hyacinthe's mother, a virgin at the time, was wagered by her cousin. Three guesses how that turned out.
* One of Creator/RoaldDahl's short stories concerns a man who bets his daughter's hand in marriage that a wine-taster cannot figure out exactly where a wine came from. As the story goes on the wine taster only gets closer and closer to the truth, much to the daughter's horror. [[spoiler: At the end it turns out the reason he was getting so close was that he had peeked at the label before, and though the resolution isn't shown, one can presume this means the bet is off.]]
* In the Literature/LiadenUniverse novel ''Plan B'', there's a character who's fallen so low that not only did his last master stake him in a card game, the bet was that the loser had to keep him.
* Happens to Ruti in ''Literature/TheRedTent''; Laban gambles her away. Knowing she'll be mistreated (not that she was being treated well before), she appeals to Leah for help. Leah and Jacob meet the men who were coming to pick up Ruti and with some effort get them to agree to take a bunch of their possessions instead of Ruti. Unfortunately for Ruti, this results in Laban treating her even worse than before.
* In ''[[Literature/StephaniePlum Plum Lucky]]'', Diesel adds Stephanie to the pot in a high-stakes poker game. Fortunately for her (the opponent is highly unpleasant), Diesel wins.

** Done entirely seriously in the (Daniel J.) Darby the Gambler battle in ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', where people bet their souls in various forms of gambling. Darby's younger brother Terence has a similar power, except the bets are always over video games.

* Creator/WalterLantz won the rights to cartoon character WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit from {{Creator/Universal}} in a card game.

** In the episode “Who Killed Who?”, Grim tells Mandy the story about Old Mrs. Doolan’s place, which is apparently a haunted house, and anything that’s ever gone inside the house’s fence has never returned, including Grim’s dog, Lucky. But upon meeting Mrs. Doolan, Mandy learns that the two actually just have a long-standing rivalry because she’s beaten him in “just about everything”, and that Grim had made the whole story up. How did Lucky really wind up in Mrs. Doolan’s possession? She won him off Grim in a Poker Game.

* Hawk from the ''Literature/HawkAndFisher'' novels once claimed to have lost his missing eye in a card game, although he was joking.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* One issue of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic used this in order to make Smithers Homer's servant. Just for the fun, note that this was Mr. Burns' way of [[BadBoss matching a $5 bet]], because he had used all his [[ZillionDollarBill "pocket change"]] at the laundromat.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/SwingTime,'' the contract for a band changes hands several times in this way.

-->'''Bud:''' "No, no; his mummy is a he."
-->'''Lou:''' "Strange country! Your mommy, your mommy was a lady, wasn't she?"
-->'''Bud:''' "I never had a mummy!"
-->'''Lou:''' "So what'd your father do; win you in a crap game?"

--> '''Jordan''': How's about we raise the stakes?
--> '''Swackhammer''': Interesting.
--> '''Jordan''': If we win, you give the NBA their talent back.
--> '''Swackhammer''': But what if ''we'' win?
--> '''Jordan''': If you win? ... You get me.

* The Robert Asprin novel ''Little Myth Marker'', part of his ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series. The title is a reference to ''Little Miss Marker''. [[spoiler: Subverted in that is later revealed that this was done deliberately on the orders of the "kid" bet so as to infiltrate the hero's household.]]
** Likewise, the fan version, [[TabletopGames/HoylesRulesOfDragonPoker Hoyle's Rules of Dragon Poker]], allows this.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* An episode of ''Sseries/TheOddCouple1970'' has Oscar lose Felix to guest star Bobby Riggs as a glorified butler. Oscar offers to try to win his freedom back but Felix wins it back himself by holding a note longer than Riggs.
-->'''Oscar''': I'll win you back, buddy!
-->'''Felix''': No you won't. You'll lose double or nothing and I'll have to bring in my brother from Buffalo!

-->'''Mark''': I don't even know how to say this. I am so sorry, and I will do my best to visit you on holidays.\\
'''Ann''': Thanks. You tried.\\
'''Mark''': I guess you're his now.\\
'''Ann''': Do you want to get out of here?\\
'''Mark''': I do.\\
'''Ann''': Okay. Bye, Andy.\\

'''Andy''': I know that legally Ann is now mine, but it weirdly doesn't feel that way.\\

'''Ann''': I hope I'm not going to have to explain to you that you don't actually own me.\\
'''Andy''': Of course not. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I never for one second thought that that was for real.]]

-->'''Cat''': We're all deeply sorry, bud. Except for me and him and him.

* Happens to the the narrator of the song "My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist" by Music/TheDecemberists.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* This is the driving feature behind the Pandavas' exile in the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}''. Yudishtra, the Crown Prince, has but one fault - a propensity to gamble. His evil Uncle Shakuni invites him to gamble with his cousin who craves the throne. However, Shakuni has cheating dice. Yudisthra bets and loses everything he owns and then begins to wager his brothers, then himself, then his wife, Draupadi. She is dragged, shrieking, by her hair, into the assembly, and is ordered to be stripped. As they do it, she cries out to Lord Krishna, who transforms her sari into a neverending sari. When they fall down from exhaustion from pulling at the folds, she delivers such an impassioned and resentful speech at Yudisthra's family - her in-laws after all - about her vile treatment, that they agree to give the brothers back their lives and change it to exile from the kingdom instead.

[[folder:Radio]]
* In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story "The Stones of Venice", the Duke of Venice gambled his wife away in a game of chance. In response, she put a hundred-year curse on the city, and the Doctor and Charley arrive the day before the curse is due to take effect.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:VisualNovels]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Collar 6}}'': Sixx bet herself ([[spoiler: She wins]]).

* It's a running joke on Website/SFDebris that the frequent absences of Alexander Rozhenko from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' were because Worf kept losing him in poker games and needed to work on purchasing him back. This would certainly explain why Alexander's so pissed off at him when he finally shows up as an adult on [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]].

* Kinda happens in ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'', as Kitten challenges Tzeench to a game of [[Franchise/YuGiOh Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Chess-Strip-Poker]] with [[spoiler: Magnus']] soul as the stakes, but Kitten does it to free [[spoiler: Magnus]] instead of keeping him.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS1E09IdiotsArray "Idiot's Array"]], Zeb bets Chopper in a game of Sabacc, believing he has an unbeatable hand. Unfortunately, his opponent is Lando Calrissian, who uses the titular hand to beat him, winning Chopper in the process. The ''Ghost'' crew has to help Lando in his schemes for the rest of the episode in order to win Chopper back. [[spoiler:Considering what happened in ''Solo'', Lando may even have cheated]].

[[folder:Other]]
* Not too long after Creator/WaltDisney left Creator/{{Universal}}--orphaning his proto-[[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse Mickey]] character WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit--Creator/WalterLantz won the rights to Oswald in a poker game with company founder Carl Laemmle.
** Decades later, the Disney company was able to get Oswald back... in exchange for ESPN Sportscaster Al Michaels. For the record, Michaels is pretty cool with it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

* An episode of ''Theatre/TheOddCouple'' has Oscar lose Felix to guest star Bobby Riggs as a glorified butler. Oscar offers to try to win his freedom back but Felix wins it back himself by holding a note longer than Riggs.